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American Public Health Association
133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition
December 10-14, 2005
Philadelphia, PA
APHA 2005
 
3339.0: Monday, December 12, 2005 - Board 4

Abstract #104925

Eating attitudes and mental health among Canadian women concerned about their weight

Jungwee Park, PhD and Marie P. Beaudet, PhD. Health Statistics Division, Statistics Canada, 3rd Floor RH Coats Building, Tunney's Pasture, Ottawa, ON K1A 0T6, Canada, 613-951-4598, jungwee.park@statcan.ca

This article examines the components of eating attitudes, their correlates and their associations to various mental health measures among weight-concerned women 15 or older. The data are from a Canadian national representative sample of women concerned about their weight. Four factors from the Eating Attitudes Test-26 were retained for analysis: food preoccupation, body image preoccupation, self-imposed dieting, and perceived external pressure. Weight-concerned women with high self-esteem were less likely to report being preoccupied with food (OR=0.90, 95% CI=0.87,0.94) and body image (OR=0.95, CI=0.91,0.99), and to perceive social pressure to eat (OR=0.95, CI=0.91,1.00) and were more likely to engage in self-imposed dieting (OR=1.05, CI=1.00,1.09). Food preoccupation among these women was positively associated with self-perceived poor mental health (OR=2.15, CI=1.55,2.97), major depression (OR=1.88, CI=1.33,2.67), and a diagnosis of an eating disorder (OR=4.06, CI=1.88,8.77). Women with body image preoccupation were more likely to have experienced depression in the last year (OR=1.71, CI=1.23,2.38) and to have received a diagnosis of an eating disorder (OR=3.03, CI=1.36,6.73). Women who scored high on the external pressure to eat dimension were more likely to have been diagnosed with an eating disorder (OR=4.63, CI=2.43,8.82). Self-imposed dieting was not associated with the selected mental illness indicators. Attention must be paid not only to eating behaviours, but also to their psychological correlates. The promotion of self-esteem may reduce the occurrence of poor eating behaviours and associated mental health problems.

Learning Objectives: The participant will be able to

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.

Mental Health Poster Session II

The 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition (December 10-14, 2005) of APHA